Transformers MTMTE #15 is released globally tomorrow (depending on your time zone). I recently bought Linkin Park’s latest album “Living Things” and while listening to the final track “Powerless” couldn’t help but notice the themes humming closely alongside the characters Chromedome, Rewind and Overlord in the most amazing Transformers comic (MTMTE).

I have since taken some photos and screen captures from a few of the comic pages and produced a little video Ode to Chromedome. He’s not dead yet, by the way (as far as I know), but he definitely has made some mistakes that involves the death of other Autobots.

This is one of those previews. I’m hesitant to post pictures that are out of context but had to spotlight some of the points that made my gut churn, tears well and heart beat just a mite faster.

Tomorrow is the release of Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye issue 12. 1 year in and I’m in love with the comic and characters. It’s getting pretty hard to watch some of the things James Roberts, Alex Milne and Josh Burcham are putting these guys through.

The whole 5 page preview can be found at FullMetalHero courtesy of IDW Publishing.

Panel pic #1:

Magnus is taking on Hun-Gurr on the left, stomping some dino-con underfoot, shooting one guy on the right and launching two missiles – all at the same moment – and after transforming too. Yep, “he is really good at fighting.”

I love this main panel – it shows the gloriousness of comics in one image – it could be considered a still image, but it also clearly shows a passage of time (vehicle, multiple attacks, movement, smooshing). And you can’t beat Swerve and Tailgate watching from afar.

Panel pic #2:

Snaptrap gets on panel briefly before getting a sword shluckted through the back of his head. Guess which Autobot did that?

I love comic sound effects. This one is nicely masked within the image too.

Okay. This one is REALLY out of context, so you may lose the impact I felt. The third panel is from Page 4, and it is a character i’ve particularly enjoyed so far this series – Swerve. He’s a fast talking, joke-cracking bar man who has gone through a lot this year. Now look at him…

Panel pic #3:

Swerve!!! How did this happen!!! He doesn’t have a face. Is he alive? Unconscious? The preview doesn’t reveal this but just hits me smack in the gut with this image. It’s haunting.

This week there has been some awesome comics releases, trailer reveals and music announcements! So many things rocking in my world!

Let’s start with the movies:

Movie #1: Regarding superheroes I’m typically a Marvel guy, but I do have some fond childhood memories watching some Superman stories on VHS and I also loved the All Star Superman comic DC released a couple of years ago. Mostly I enjoyed Smallville’s take on Clark Kent growing up and realising his destiny.

So this week the “Man of Steel” main trailer was released and I loved it. The gravitas and tone set by the music and narration really sets this up as a step for Superman to enter the current generation of moviegoers that are well-versed in Comic Superheroes on screen. There’s a lot of power and impact that is teased at in the trailer as well. If you haven’t seen it – here’s my friendly link #1.

Movie #2: Pacific Rim is a giant monster vs robot film from one of my favorite directors, Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth). The trailer only really hints at a lot of the scale and fun that this film will be – but it totally brings out all my memories with Neon Genesis Evangelion, Godzilla and Transformers. With Del Toro helming this with the freedom to make the movie he wants, this is gonna rock – check it out here link #2.

Now my favorite part of the week – this week’s comics!

I had a lovely LOOOONG drive down to my local comic shop this week but it was worth it. A bunch of comics to pick up and some real gems. Two Transformers comics in particular – Robots in Disguise #12 and a return of the Spotlight brand focusing on Orion Pax (pre-Optimus Prime). Robots in Disguise is a comic that i’ve been engrossed in all year (still working on that essay…) and it even got to the top of the “Buy Pile” at ComicBookResources. The “Underbase” podcasting team did a great review of it too – link #3.

Also on comics – next week sees Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #12 coming out – which in James Roberts on words “ends with a bang.” Which little robot is gonna get it?!?

And lastly here, MY LITTLE PONY #2 should be out in a week’s time – can’t wait!

I’m back! The school year is about to end, so i’m going to make sure more blogs happen! At least one or two people will read them. 2013 will bring more awesome Transformers comics to read, and also news of my own comics too!

This past week saw the release of the latest issue of Transformers: Regeneration One (#86) and it launches the next story arc from Simon Furman and Andy Wildman. Lots of buzz about this comic, which is of course linked to the TF81 petition that I co-ordinated last year with wild success. (We still have a facebook page running with updates here). I’m going down to Phantom Zone this weekend sometime to grab it, and then i’ll listen to The Underbase review!

The awesome gang at “The Underbase” podcast have reviewed the comic and I recommend you check it out. These guys do amazing reviews of all the Transformers comics, and coupled with the fact that this year the quality has been excellent, they’re a joy to listen to! Go to fullmetalhero and follow the link. You can also subscribe on iTunes really easy. Plug in “the underbase” and you’ll be set. They regularly do interviews with the comic pro’s too, so check it out.

You may be wondering why i’m plugging The Underbase so much. Well, aside from their awesomeness, I also co-moderate the IDW Transformers forums with Ladywreck – but more importantly, when listening to their review of Transformers: Robots in Disguise #11 last week I had some real contrasting views to co-host Matt’s position on the issue. Coming in my next blog!

How much can one rave about a comic? Let me tell you, the internet has not seen enough!!!

Aside from being content-filled, mystery-induced, spark-eating, Transformer-lovingly awesome, More Than Meets The Eye is a great comic.

A group of Autobots and friends, led by Rodimus (formerly known as Hot Rod), set off to find the ancient, mythological “Knights of Cybertron.” And their ship is called the “Lost Light.”

Well, here’s my question:

How can this ship NOT be a Transformer, in disguise?

On the right: Head, complete with helmet, visor, chin, beard and hair

On the left: torso, 4 limbs (1 obscured by “hair”), hands and feet

IT’S ALL THERE PEOPLE!

We have not seen many zoomed out shots of the ship, but I’ve included 3 of the key ones here, and in the second two in this post I believe it’s clear that we can see a helmet/visor over a face and the rear could easily be limbs.

Now it has to be said, James, Alex, Josh and Nick are masters at what they’re doing in this story. There are so many twists and turns that the fans are speculating about which character is Agent 113, who are the DJD and WHO PUT OVERLORD IN THE BASEMENT?!?

So, I guess I could be going waaaay out there with this one, though, if anyone had a secret plan for the ship their on to be a Transformer, it’d be these guys!

Check this out: this panel it has a NOSE AND MOUTH!!!

Sooo… yeah. The Lost Light is enjoying it’s not-so-quiet journey with a radical crew. What is it going to take to spark this thing back to life?

It was only 5 short years ago that the first live action Transformers film hit cinemas world-wide and introduced a global audience to Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and co.

At that point I still felt like somewhat of a novice in the geek world. It was only back in 2004 that I really started collecting comics, following superhero movie hype online and buying whatever Transformer toys took my fancy. Good times.

The 80’s nostalgia boom was mid-stream, and I gradually became part of the online community of fans through Don Murphy’s website and forums. A few other websites caught my eye for good movie and comics news and I browse their quite often. But In 2006-7 IDW Publishing launched their first series of Transformer comics and I was more than ready to dive in.

It’s now 2012 and IDW have expanded the universe with two monthly Transformers books and I’m wholeheartedly on board. In fact an expansion of their series was something I thought should happen, and this year has been perfect timing. The response from fans has been overwhelmingly positive, with plenty of constructive thoughts because like all art, there are plenty of tastes in comics.

The two series (‘Robots in Disguise’ and ‘More Than Meets the Eye’) are quite simply amazing. Thematic, classic, psychological, witty, political, dramatic, violent, touching and heart-wrenching.

Over the next month I will be blogging a series of posts exploring both ‘Robots in Disguise’ and ‘More Than Meets The Eye’ as well as a very extensive analysis of EVERY panel and narrative balloon in contemporary Transformers comic in the past two or so years vs other mainstream series. That one has taken me 7 months to develop!

So if you enjoy Transformers and comics, these will be especially for you! And if you’re not, then they will be even more so for you as I convince you of the glorious narratives that are being weaves by IDW Publishing!

Today is Free Comic Book Day. The first Saturday in May over the past few years has been filled with fun when I take Isabella and Melissa down to my local comic shop, Phantom Zone, and the FCBD comics are out on the tables and they have great sales and it’s just a fun vibe.

This is an international celebration of comics and not enough people I know get into it. For a simple trip down to Parramatta so many people I know could check out the stories of the characters they love to watch in movies in their original context.

This year though, is something special.

From late March 2011 through to June I co-promoted and ran an online petition requesting comic publishers IDW Publishing to bring back the original Transformers comics series by writer Simon Furman.

It wasn’t until San Diego Comic Con that they said anything publicly – and they announced that they were going to do a 20 issue run with Furman AND artist Andrew Wildman.

Many of my blog readers know all about this. We got lots of fan artists and pro’s doing promotional pieces of art that helped to promote the petition. We had a Facebook page and twitter account and put flyers in our comic shops. We even had some news sites report about the petition.

And now it’s FCBD 2012 and the first issue, a prologue issue 80.5 is here!

I sincerely hope that all the fans that supported the petition get out there and grab a copy and try to take as many friends in to get one as well!

The series starts in June at #81 and I can’t wait to see where the creative team will take the series!

This January, three (yep, three) new Transformer comics are being launched by IDW Publishing and look very exciting.

In fact, More than meets the eye #1 (MTMTE) came out last week and had quite a bit of buzz surrounding it, including a fun picture treasure hunt that had lots of fans scowering the net for the twelve of them.

Robots In Disguise is launched next week on the 25th (26th here in Aus) from senior editor/writer John Barber and artist Andrew Griffith (see Glove Studios).

However, I want to point your attention to a new, very special comic coming this week!
IDW are launching their first digital only transformers comic, Autocracy.
From the minds of Flint Dille (classic transformers writer), Chris Metzthen (blizzard!) and über-artist Livio Ramondelli (Transformers: Chaos – find him on twitter @livioramondelli) comes a story featuring Optimus Prime, Megatron and amongst others.

It is set in the past, during the beginning of the war between autobot and decepticon and will be the only place to see Megatron and Optimus in comics for a while.

Also, it will only cost 99c for each issue, it’s 8 pages long and coming out bi-weekly for about half the year!!!

I’m really excited by this, and IDW put out a cool plug over the weekend (see below).

So, if you have ea computer, iPad, iPhone, or iPod I would check this out this week!!!